Rainbow Reviews with a Twist of Kiwi

Daily Archives: January 10, 2015

“Everyone tells me to stay away from him. But if only I knew how to resist him…”

Goa isn’t supposed to be on Damon O’Neil’s list of places to stay while working in India. It’s merely a substitute for his planned trip to visit his sister in Paris for Christmas and the New Year. His boss had other ideas. He’s sent Damon to carry out urgent upgrades to the company’s offshore units and Damon can’t say no.

When Damon encounters an extra-spicy curry, a handsome Indian guy named Virat comes to his rescue. Damon is instantly smitten with his looks, and especially with his cute smile. But Damon soon realizes he is very much out of his league when Virat introduces his new wife.

However, there might just be a chance Virat isn’t all he pretends to be …

Kimi’s thoughts:

This was a story that normally I would have passed up from the description- I really dislike people in committed relationships cheating and the idea that the cheater’s new love would be the romance would be repellent. But that’s not this story,, and to go on such an assumption would have made me very, very wrong.

Virat is a man who is married because he’s done what is expected of him and while hoping to not be lonely all his life. He married a woman, choosing his female best friend in an effort to make things as comfortable and companionable as possible. he then meets the man of his dreams and realises he’s made a terrible mistake, one that is as unfair on his best friend as it is himself. What follows is a romance with one man trying to make things right, rather than doing what’s wrong. It’s an unexpectedly sweet love story and it’s one that the author manages to tell in a surprisingly short length (it’s a novella of only 72 pages). The setting is exotic and adds a bit of flair. It was almost like getting tot make a mini vacation to a warm, sunshiny place in the midst of winter gloom.

Before confessing his gayness to his best friend, Tierney Terrebonne’s sex life is -strictly restroom. After confessing his gayness to his best friend . . . it doesn’t improve much. Why bother trying when the man he’s loved for fourteen years (see: “best friend”) is totally unattainable? Good thing Tierney is an old hand at accepting defeat; all it takes is a bottle of bourbon. Or fifty. Repeat as needed.

Dalton Lehnart has a history of dating wealthy, damaged, closeted, lying, cheating, no-good, cowardly men, so of course he’s immediately attracted to Tierney Terrebonne. Fortunately, Tierney is so dissolute that even Dalton’s feelings for the man would be better described as pity. Which becomes sympathy as they get to know each other. Followed by compassion, concern, caring, and hopefulness as Tierney struggles to change his life. When the man comes out very publicly and enters rehab, Dalton finds himself downright attached to Tierney. And as everyone knows, after attachment comes . . .

Uh oh.

But post-rehab Tierney can’t handle more than friendship, so Dalton should be safe from repeating his own past mistakes, right? Right?

Review

This is the sequel to Too Stupid to Live and in it we get to see a bit from Sam who is still doing psychology via Romance books (which is fun), but mostly this is about Tierney and his growth from giant douche-knob to boyfriend.

We are supposed to find Tierney annoying and he is, but he’s got some good reasons to be that way and in the end he redeems himself into someone Dalton-worthy.

This is a long book, a bit more serious than some of Anne Tenino’s other books, a bit less in the sex scenes, and sometimes more difficult to get through than book one (definitely more angsty), but as always, Tenino is an excellent writer and delivers a great story.